Ulysses

I haven't read Ulysses.

I haven't read The Odyssey either, although I do own a lovely copy of it. Same with The Iliad. Sad, isn't it. How did I get through Mrs. V's literature class without it! I also have Joyce's Dubliners. One day I'll crack that open, too. When I run out of books to borrow from our library. Until then I'll simply revel in the pleasures of ownership.

What I found most interesting about the article on Ulysses was that James Joyce explores the minutae of his characters' thoughts and actions. I like that. What made him think anyone would care what his characters' every little thoughts were. And care enough to spend (quite a long little bit of) their time reading them. And from there, discussing them. I mean, how did he know me?

I recently saw a postcard on the PostSecret website, or maybe it was in their latest book, A Lifetime of Secrets: A PostSecret Book, someone confessed that they would like to have their life narrated, just like Dexter does. YoungBlood and I both are semi-obsessed with Dexter. I've always liked the books, and am impatient for Jeff Lindsay's next one. YoungBlood and I watch the shows together. I tell him how they differ from the books. I don't think he really cares, but for some reason it seems important (to me) that he understand where the character came from, and what the author is doing with him (or allowing him to do).

But the shows, yeah, we get to hear everything that Dexter is thinking ... which can be REALLY creepy. And it's great! Being not quite “right”, he has to study what people do so he knows how to “act” human, so there's a lot of him-in-his-head wondering and figuring out why people do the things they do which of course is just right up my alley, honey.

And aren't you reminded of Truman?




His entire life was narrated, every motion a voyeur's gratification, viewed, celebrated, mourned and discussed by millions, accompanied by a soundtrack, and oh the flashbacks! Definitely have to give some consideration to what would be included on the soundtrack of my life:

My life. Not a lot to look at here, except pretty faces ... kinda sad ...

Back to the Subject: evidently the last chapter of Ulysses contains only 8 sentences. Looooonnnggg ones. I'm a sucker for run-ons. Especially if it's amusing. Especially if I'm not reading it, but writing it myself. Here's an example, a note that I wrote to our computer tech at work when she wrote a note mentioning the quality of her own run-on sentence:

“Well now, I reckon I'd give it a B- as it really did have nice form and certainly was a good starting-point for a Grade A+ run-on sentence and yet it didn't have the length and breadth, full expansion if you will, that is the hallmark of the Grade A+ which ought to, ideally, include an aside or two -- as taught to me by my high school English teacher Mrs. V who does and always will inhabit a special place in my obsessive-compulsive grammatical heart -- and yet never truly veer far from the subject at hand, which in this case is of course the run-on sentence itself, and to truly achieve greatness please keep in mind the length of the sentence which should run on no less than any self-respecting paragraph, but there's no reason to get ridiculous about it, as the occasional published writer is apt to do, and write entire pages with nary a period in sight. Boring.”

OK, it really didn't even need the dashes and commas, and it's probably not as long as James Joyce's, but it's still longer than the norm, and it very much amused me to write it.

As to our lesson, I have been inspired to read Ulysses on my laptop, from Gutenberg. When I get to the end, and to that last chapter, I will most likely focus less on the content, Molly Bloom's thoughts, and more on the likelihood of Joyce's escalating feeling of amusement as he pushed ahead with word after word after word ...

The anticipation!